Questions & Answers about Mój dywan jest czysty.
Why are there no articles (“the”, “a”) before dywan in Polish?
Polish does not use articles. Instead of “a” or “the”, you rely on context or modifiers (like possessives) to express definiteness or indefiniteness. In Mój dywan jest czysty the word mój (“my”) makes it clear which carpet you mean, so no article is needed.
Why is the possessive mój used here, and why not moja or moje?
Polish possessive pronouns agree in gender, case and number with the noun they modify. Dywan is a masculine singular noun in the nominative case, so it takes the masculine form mój. The other forms are:
• moja – feminine singular nominative (e.g. moja książka)
• moje – neuter singular nominative (e.g. moje okno)
What case is dywan in Mój dywan jest czysty, and how can I recognize it?
Here dywan is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the sentence. In Polish, the nominative singular of most masculine nouns often has no ending change (e.g. dywan, stół, kot).
Why does the adjective czysty end with -y? Shouldn’t it match the noun?